Any experience of the prescription delivery services?

[PastMyBestBeforeDate]

The sort of thing like Lloyd's Echo, the Co-Op one or I think there's an NHS one?
I've always wanted to support my local pharmacy so have continued to collect prescriptions from there. A bit of an 'incident' yesterday with a very rude pharmacist has made me wonder about going over to the delivery for regular medication.
What happens about other prescriptions that you need quickly?

Grateful for any experiences.

I use pharmacy 2 u for mine and haven’t had any issues.

I shall add that to my list Sirzy thank you.

I didn’t like pharmacy 2U. They ordered on my behalf when I didn’t want/need stuff.

I use Lloyds Echo and they are great.

I like echo for monthly stuff. However if my children have an infection I just get the dr to fax to the nearest chemist as we couldn’t wait for delivery and pick up on the same day.....

I dislike waiting in chemists though ..... and prescriptions take 25/30 minutes to hand out 😡😡😡

Thank you. So Echo's winning so far!
ilovechoc12 good to know GPs can still get it to an ordinary pharmacy.

I use Pharmacy2U and highly recommend it. You get an email to confirm that you want the repeat prescription to be approved by your GP so I don’t know how you can get stuff you didn’t ask for?

I always used to forget to get a repeat prescription form because you had to go into the surgery and get one and then hand it in then wait 72 hours so I’d often run out of meds. Now they’re always delivered well before they run out and no waiting at the chemist. Love it!

@nelsonscolumn

I use Lloyds Echo and they are great.

Seconding this. It also enables me to manage DH's medication on the same account, which is useful as he never remembers to put his repeat in...

I’ve started with Echo and they are a massive improvement on our local Lloyds who are rubbish and often quite rude as well .

I am in love with Pharmacy2u. In the past the whole process of getting prescriptions could take up to a week. Now, I order online and sometimes they arrive through our letterbox the very next day.

I use Lloyds Echo and it's very efficient. As my local pharmacy is also Lloyds I'm not taking business away from them as a company.

I use Echo, and it's great. I never forget to request meds as Echo reminds me and then orders on my behalf. I've had no issues with it.

I use Well pharmacy and they have always been helpful. I have never had any issues and I have 3 or so prescriptions a month.

I love pharmacy2u

They will not order stuff without your consent

Thank you :) Pretty clear there are two main contenders!

Another vote here for pharmacy2you. I've never had an issue
I email my GP when I have about 10-14 days worth of meds left. They approve the prescription and send it to pharmacy2you. The meds then arrive through my door. I've never had a problem. (For some reason my meds aren't on repeat)

If I needed something urgently I would ask gp to send it to my local pharmacy instead.

I have a yearly prescription plan with the NHS and use Boots - fast, free, regular, send me reminder emails. Worth a look too OP

I've used echo for a year or so very happily

Pharmacy2you worked well for me, but my local pharmacy also does their own delivering and you can order repeat prescriptions through them, which is brilliant.

@lcdododo

I love pharmacy2u

They will not order stuff without your consent

Actually they might order without your consent. In principe it’s a great idea, but I had problems through them on two occasions.

In lockdown one I changed to Pharmacy2u.
Fine in principle, they were experiencing delays but that was to be expected due to what was going on and more people using prescription deliveries.
I ordered in advance to account for that, and the order tracking showed that there would be a delay of a couple of days due to stock issues, then another delay and another.
There helpline had a recorded message asking you to email customer services and wait, unless it became critical
When I could get through I was ‘reassured’ it was about to come in, then delayed again etc and that it would be upgraded to next day delivery (after it comes in stock)
Ultimately when I ran out of time for it to be posted they said they could transfer my prescription to the system for collection from any pharmacist - allow a day for the transfer

I then went to try and collect, no trace
With further checking the pharmacist found that pharmacy2u hadn’t reverted the prescription but cancelled it
I had to request again from the doctor and to ensure it went to the local pharmacist.
That would have been fine, but this pharmacist knew what they were doing and that the stock problem was due to factory issues, so was not going to be available
Back to the doctor for an alternative, and in the end having run out and also needing the new pills for a few days before the effects kicked in again

Then last July pharmacy2u decided to reorder a prescription from my doctor, which he issued but to the local pharmacy (as I would have wanted)
Pharmacy2u then kept ‘hastening’ the prescription - they did send me emails about the hastening but lost in my spam folder.
The doctors receptionist phoned me to ask if there was a problem due to them constantly contacting the surgery
My condition is seasonal, so I wasn’t taking pills in July and wouldn’t have needed them
A trip to the pharmacy discovered that again it was the original that still isn’t in production, so I had the prescription back to the doctor to be changed to the available one etc

Calling pharmacy2u customer services I was told that it was impossible and they would only order if I contacted them, to be followed with ‘Oh’ as they opened the account details
They couldn’t understand, apologized, said it was referred for investigation and I had them delete all records on me

I use healthera which is the app my local village pharmacy uses. It's great, I tell them what meds I want, they ask the GP surgery for them and then I choose a delivery time and pay £2.50 to get them delivered. The one time the GP didn't approve a med they sent me a message to let me know.

You can set it so it automatically orders meds at set intervals but I have chosen not to do that.

They also deliver a weekly box which has my medication made up for me and that is free,

Oh God, please don’t! Pharmacy2U & Echo are nightmares, we often have patients left without medication as they take so long to sort & deliver - so then we have to issue emergency scripts to go to a local pharmacy.

@tommika

Quite clearly that doesn't happen often though otherwise they wouldn't be so popular.

I've used them weekly for over a year. No issues and prescriptions always received within 3 days

@MadisonMontgomery

Oh God, please don’t! Pharmacy2U & Echo are nightmares, we often have patients left without medication as they take so long to sort & deliver - so then we have to issue emergency scripts to go to a local pharmacy.

This is obviously something that is local to you or because the patient is not requesting in a timely fashion . I have several medications per day , and have never had an issue with Echo , I put the request on the Echo app and it is usually delivered to me within 5 days .

Madison ah that's a bit worrying.